The Upstream approach to re-framing politics as a tool in the service of public health looks to me like the first monumentally cogent idea to come out of Saskatchewan since Tommy Douglas led the way to single-payer health care. Canada’s progress down the difficult but worthy path toward egalitarianism desperately needs this sort of refreshing perspective. The stakes are too high for political decisions to be informed by anything less than the best evidence available, and we can’t afford to let our choices to be guided by anything less than a clear commitment to tackle the inequality that poisons our society. I am tired of retreating from my political disappointments and I am tired of letting cynicism and pseudo-nihilism turn me into a lazy bystander. Put me to work on this.